Vehicle-signal



R. REYNOLDS.

VEHICLE SIGNAL.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 7., 1916.

Patented Feb 2 SHEETSSHEET R. REYNOLDS R. REYNOLDS. VEHECLE SIGNAL.APPLICATION FILED SE'PT. 7, I916.

1,367,989. Patentedlieb. 8, 1923..

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 3! Kg 'R- REYNOLDS- warren-stares ingest eerie-E.

nonnn REYNOLDS, or Housron, Taxes.

VEHICLE-SIGNAL.

Application filed September 7, .1916; SerialNo. 113,874.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, Roi-Inn 'REYNOLDS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Houston, in the county'of Harris and State of Texas, haveinvented certain new and useful improvements in Vehicle-Signals, of

which the following is a specification, ref

erence being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relatesto signals for automobiles and other vehicles andparticularly to signalsmounted upon the rear-of; a vehicle and actuatedby the driver for the purpose of indicating thedirection in which 7 Afurther object of theinvention is to 7 provide a signaling mechanism inwhich a plurality of signal arms or semaphores are used connected byflexible connections to operating 'means, these connections beingarranged. within-a flexible conduit so that the mechanism may be appliedin the most convenient manner to, all makes of automobiles, or invariouscircumstances,oi operation; r i

Still another object is vto provide a 31gnaling device of this characterwhich will occupy but little space and which W- 1ll not readily get outof order. 7

Other objects will appear in the course of the following descriptions 1My invention is illustrated-in the accorn- .panying. drawmgs, wherein-zY F igure 1 is an elevation of mysignali-ng deviceapphed: upon anautomobile;

\ Fig. 2 is asectionalview of thecasinglO showing the signal-. actuatingmembers within the-casing and also showing the; sig' Fig. 3 is a sectionon the'line 3+31of Fig. 2 looking in the direction of the arrows; F ig.4 is a sectional view of the means for operating the various signals; a

Fig; 5' 's**a longitudinal sectional view through the casing 21 atrightzanglesto the section in Fig 4; and Q Fig. 6 is an elevation partlyin section Specification of iletters Patenti indiciamaybe used; however.

Patented Feb.

showing a modified form of signaling mech anism.

It ferring to these drawings,l0 designates a casing which is preferablyof sheetmetal, though it may bemade of any other suitable material, thecasing beingv open at its sides but closed at its top, the sides attherear portion of the casing being also closed; EX- tending through thecasing [from front to rear, is a, shaft 11, and surrounding this shaftare a plurality of sleeves .12, these sleeves being successively shorterso that i the outermost sleeve is shortest ofall as illustrated clearlyin Fig. 2. These sleeves are rotatable upon each other and upon: thecentral shaft which is rotatable within the;

casing. A'suitable bearing ll may be prov1ded to support theseveral-sleeves and the intermediate portion of the" shaft, this bearingbeing disposed to engagethe outermost sleeve 12 and being mounted inany suitable, ,niannerupon the casing} Mountedlupon these severalsleeves are the corresponding pulleys or band Wheels 141. 1 i

Mounted upon the shaft 11 is a semaphore arm 15 and mounted upon each ofthesleeves 12 is a corresponding semaphore arm; all

of these semaphore arms beingv designated l6, and all alike exceptasreg'ards the sig naling indicia carried thereon. -These sema- 1phoresare preferably oi relatively thin sheet metalsuch asgalvanizedliro'n andare about one {and five-'eighths inches. wide.

' N m y' th sev l semaph res ladepend vertically and are concealedfromview by the front ot-Sthe casing 10.- One ofqthese semaphorearmscarries 'upon-ifii the word IStop andanother one the *word l'fSlow,still another the word Reverse "and the remaining armscarry thewordsRight an e fl respectively- Q her Word *0! Q Mounted inthe trame 10disposed finthe lower portion of the casing area plurality of 'pulleys-17 and -over .theselpull'eys pass upon these bandwheelsso thatwhen-thereflexible :ronnections suchas chains 18 which extend upward tothe several.pulleysfor A band Wheels; 14; the chains being wound 105spective, chains 18" are: pulled the band wheels and the respective"shafts will hero-2.;

tated to raise the paddles i'orjseinaphores connected theretointo;horizontal position. Connected-t0 the rear end of the casing is a nipple19 to which'in turnfisconnected a 4' vfln li ecantime -2Qw ch as illusated in i Connected to the forward end of this flex.

ible conduit 20 is a box or casing 21 into which these several flexiblechains or wires 18 lead. Mounted to extend through the end of the casingare a plurality of operating members or pulls designated 22 each ofthese members being hooked shape at its outer end. These pulls operatethrough guides 23 mounted within the box and each pull is connected toone or" the flexible connections 18. The flexible connections 18 eachare in the form of wires where they pass through the flexible conduit 20and pass through a suitable spreader 2% which is mounted within thecasing 21. This casing 21 is preferably mounted upon the steering postbut it may be mounted in any other convenient position so that thedriver can readily pull up on any desired actuating member 22 so astoactuate the corresponding signal.

Mounted upon the trout face of the casing 10 is a lamp housing 25 havinga pane of red glass 26 on its face which constitutes the usual taillight and also having lateral lenses 2? whereby light from the lampcontained' within the housing is directed to right and left ofthe'casing 10 and against the faces of the signal arms or semaphores,

in a manner which will be obvious Fig. 3. l

lVhile I have heretofore described one form of myinvention it is to beunderstood that many changes might be made without departing from thespirit of the invention, thus inFig. 6 I show a modification in whichthe pulleys 14 and 17 are dispensed with. In this ase the flexibleconnections 18 which lead from the casing or box 21 are connected to thedepending arms or bell from crank levers 26. there being one bell cranklever for each signal or semaphore arm and the e bell crank levers beingmounted in any' suitable manner as upon a shaft 27 extendins, across thecasing 10'; The signal or sema- 'phore arms are also mounted upon ashaft 28 so as to rotate independent of each other and each arm'isprovided with an angularly bent member 29 constitutin za part oi the armor extending above the pivotal axis thereof and between thehorizontalarm of the corresponding bell crank lever 26 and the angularmember 29 leads to a flexible connection or link It will now be obviousthat when anv o e of the flexible connections 18 are'pulled thecorresponding sig nal arm or semaphore will'he raised and that when thispull is relax'edthe arm will drop to its normal position; Otherwisethanthis .the construction illustrated'is the same as that previously de"ribed. 1

The operation of this mechanism will'be' obvious from the drawings andprevious de scription. It will be seen that my device is very simple inconstruction and operation and that because of the flexible conduit andthe flexible operating connections which pass through the conduit, thesignaling device may be readily applied to any vehicle and arranged inits most convenient position. No signals are normally shown but when thecar is about to move to right or left or to slow down, reverse or stop,the proper actuating pull 23 is drawn upward, thus causing the signalarms to move from an obscured vertical position to a displayedhorizontal position. When so displayed the signal arms are lighted bythe lenses 27. Inasmuch as the signal arms are preferably white with redletters thereon they may be readily distinguished at night as well as inday.

Having claim is:

l. A vehicle signal including a casing adapted to be attached to therearend of the vehicle and open at its opposite sides, a shaft passingthrough the casing from described my invention, what I front to rear.a'plurality of sleeves mounted upon the shaft for independent rotation,said sleeves being progressively shorter so that a smaller sleeve willproject at both ends beyond a larger sleeve. semaphore arms mounted eachupon one of said sleeves. pulleys mounted each upon each one of saidsleeves. and actuating connections passing over said pulleys andconnected to operating means certain connections being wound upon thep'ullevs reversely to certain other connections, whereby cert in of thearms will sh ft to a display position in one direction and theremainderof the arms be shifted to a display position in the opposite direction.

2. The combination with a plurality of signals, ofmeans for actuatingthe signals 'in'luding flexible connections extending there rom. atubular housing through which the flexible connections extend, a casinghaving a width greater than the diameter of the housing and into whichthe connections extend. a p u ality of longitudinally movable pullsslidinqlv mounted within said casing and extending out therefrom, thepulls bel r laterally spaced from each other. and pulleys disposed atthe iunction

